Massive Attack – Heligoland
It’s taken me the two weeks since Massive Attack‘s new album came out for me to decide I’m ready to put my thoughts together on this album, and even then I’m not entirely sure I’ve got my head around it altogether.
Let’s get things started with the bit I wasn’t expecting to write: this album’s not crap.
I know, I’m scratching my head as well. After the dismally middling 100th Window, and all of the subsequent rumours of the remaining two members of Massive Attack’s barely-functioning relationship, I’d basically given up on Massive Attack or any kind of return to their former greatness.
Having said this, this isn’t (in my humble opinion) a return to band’s greatness as seen in their best works – but in a lot of ways I think comparing Heligoland to those albums will perhaps inhibit your enjoyment: I started to properly enjoy the album once I managed to disentangle my listening from comparing the album to it’s predecessors, and trying to work out where it fit within the Massive sound.
The album’s sound and aesthetic is clean, and bright: it’s melodic, it’s pure. This is not entirely good, but it’s not entirely bad either. There’s no sonic grime – no Blue Lines vinyl crackle and hiss or Mezzanine distortion. It’s calculated and precise, and most definitely digital – occasionally with a little too much Pro Tools post-production applied. That’s not to say it doesn’t have atmosphere – there’s plenty, it just manifests itself in different ways. There’s less bombast by way of slow, plodding beats or rib-shattering sub-bass, but the band manage to conjure up dark and occasionally downbeat textures by way of other means, including an unexpected presence of recognizably acoustic instruments: pianos, horns, drums and guitars.
The highlights are definitely pushed forward by their guest appearances – Tunde Adebimpe (saves an otherwise potentially dull song), Hope Sandoval (absolutely stellar), Horace Andy (“Girl I Love You” is excellent) and Damon Albarn (excellent) each turn out incredible tracks, largely due to their performances and songwriting input. Elbow’s Guy Harvey’s modern futuristic spy tune feels like it’s trying a little hard to be a clever tune, but it ends up winning you by the time it reaches its horn-laden conclusion. Robert Del Naja seems to have given up on rapping (unfortunately) but he manages to turn out two good singing performances on “Rush Minute” and “Atlas Air” – but these songs, while decent, seem let down by uneven arrangement and production, both feeling a little bit laborious and uninspired in their assembly.
And then there are the missteps, sure – “Splitting The Atom” is an embarrassing attempt at a lighter Blue Lines-era tune with phoned-in performances from Daddy G, Horace Andy and Del Naja, while Martina Topley-Bird’s two contributions are pleasant enough but ultimately unremarkable.
All this being said, I found once I got amongst the album and let it speak on it’s own terms it’s thoroughly listenable and definitely enjoyable. A few tunes will be able to stand as classic tracks in the Massive Attack oeuvre, and many of the remaining at the very least contribute to a cohesive album.
Colour me surprised – I wasn’t expecting much from this one at all.
“Splitting The Atom” Video
